David Pipe believes the Memorial Stadium atmosphere could give Rovers the boost they need against Crystal Palace this evening.

The midfielder made his debut for the club on Saturday afternoon, in the 1-1 draw against Port Vale.

And as he hopes to make it two starts from two, David is looking forward to the chance to impress the home faithful.

"I think on Saturday against Port Vale I started a bit ropey if I'm being honest," David told bristolrovers.co.uk, "I gave the ball away a few times, but then I got better as the game went on, and on the positive side I was on the end of a few chances and I felt I got a lot stronger.

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"Sometimes you have spells in games when not everything goes right, and if that happens then I try to make up for it with my workrate.

"I didn't expect to get a start on Saturday, but Trolls pulled me over the day before and told me I'd be in the team. I wasn't so much nervous as surprised, but I wanted to get out there and show people what I could do.

"All the lads that finished last season so well are still looking strong, and I was expecting Trolls to stick with them, but for whatever reason he picked me to play and I was delighted.

"I thought the fans were brilliant, even during the warm-up when we were doing our sprints and exercises the noise they were making was frightening. That gave us a buzz before the game even started, and then when we came out the number of them seemed to double!"

Crystal Palace began their 2007/08 campaign with a win over Southampton, and David knows they'll prove a very difficult test.

"In football whenever you get to play against the bigger teams it brings excitement," he said, "They did very well on Saturday against Southampton, and clearly they're no mugs.

"They'll be a good test for us, but we're positive going into it, it's our home game and we'll give them a good match.

"I've played at the Mem before as an away player, and I know what it's like. There's always a great atmosphere there, and I'm sure that will be the same this evening, and I'm looking forward to it."